Carbon Piano

Most of us know carbon fiber as the modern super-metal that is lightweight, strong, and used in all sorts of applications such as high-end bikes, cars, and aeronautics.

But on the top floor of a dusty piano factory outside of New York City there sits one of the world’s only piano’s made out of carbon fiber. Traditional pianos have struggled with the tradeoff of either being sensitive but too quiet to fill a hall, or having projection but losing some of their nuance and beauty. This unique Bogyani piano overcomes this tradeoff. While structurally similar to a traditional layered spruce soundboard, carbon fiber makes the piano both stronger and thinner helping to produce and project beautiful and colorful sounds both far more powerfully, yet also far more sensitively, increasing the range of what one artist can express.

This one-of-a-kind instrument is a prototype designed for a world class musician named Serene, who is a concert pianist from a most unexpected trajectory. Previously Serene was a Google engineer and researcher, now she performs and tours with orchestras around the world, despite having never attended conservatory. Amongst her multi-genre projects, she has enjoyed collaborations such as creating composition for Kanye West’s Opera, premiering at The Lincoln Center, performing at Art Basel, and featuring as pianist and technologist with Blue Man Group’s founder. Across all of her musical endeavors, Serene is focused on bringing futuristic innovations at the intersection of music and technology while also highlighting her own synesthesia. She has cultivated a unique, disciplined, spiritual approach to the piano, which combined with her intersections of many disciplines, has grown an international following.

Splice spent three days with Serene recording with an AEA R88 stereo ribbon microphone playing, plucking, hitting, and recording every possible aspect of this beast of an instrument. We created countless melodies and song starters using the piano strings, the hammers, the damper, the piano lid, and of course the keyboard. Serene’s playing takes the listener into a new dimension not bound to genre, tempo, or any form of rigidity and the Splice production team re-worked her genius into dozens of production ready loops. Splice Explores: Carbon Piano is a beautiful collection of high-quality piano, your chance to access a truly unique instrument, and add a profound otherworldly musicality into your next track.